NEW ORLEANS FEATURES - See You Later, Alligator!

See You Later, Alligator!

Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water, alligators have become a little more eager to meet you. On bayous traveled by swamp tours and fishing boats, alligators have come to expect feedings. Offerings of chicken have discouraged them from their instinctual fears of men and their machines.

The question may be how close do you want to get to the alligators? Consider that they'll eat any moving thing they can get in their jaws. They grow teeth like sharks and go through thousands in a lifetime. Even when mating, a male will chew on the female. Alligator sausage or leathery alligator skin boots are close enough for most.

But not all. Fisherman Theophile Bourgeois and Audubon zookeeper Remy Lazare practically live with the alligators. They feed them, occasionally wrestle with them and even care for them. They offer some insights about getting up close and personal with an American Alligator.

What do alligators like to eat?

As a zookeeper in the Audubon Zoo's Louisiana Swamp exhibit, Lazare feeds the alligators twice a week. Their 10 gators eat a regularly scheduled diet of beef, chicken and fish. Naturally, however, alligators are less discriminating. "They'll eat anything in the exhibit," Lazare says. "Alligators would eat and eat until they explode." Surprisingly, the adult gators only require five or six pounds of food per week.

Alligator mothers teach their young to snap at anything that breaks the surface of the water, says Theophile Bourgeois of Bourgeois Charters. That includes small frogs, snakes, rats and nutria, a swamp creature that looks like a very large rat with orange teeth. Bourgeois has even seen gators pluck egrets and cranes from low branches of trees.

According to one local yarn, alligators have a taste for marshmallows. While you won't see gators turn them down, Bourgeois points out, that doesn't say too much. "They might like tennis balls just as much," he says. Like sharks, a caught gator's stomach might contain anything from a shoe to a license plate. It all depends what waters they have been stalking.

Did gators crawl out of Jurassic Park?

Almost. Alligators have existed since early in the Jurassic period (140-190 million years ago), but they are reptiles, which means they are cold blooded. They cannot regulate their own body temperature and have very low metabolism rates, says Lazare. In winter, their metabolism slows down further and in temperatures below 78 degrees they cannot digest food. Instead it will actually rot in their stomachs. Not that this keeps alligators from hunting. But in winter they will slow down and sleep for several days at a time in partially submerged dens they build at a bayou's edge or riverbank.

How are their hunting skills?

Alligators survive on stealth, Lazare says. Equipped with a powerful tail, they are very agile in water. But they typically hunt by lying in waiting. Surprise is their best weapon because with their low metabolism they quickly exhaust themselves. While most humans could out run an alligator, it's the quick sprint in the beginning that's crucial. Adult gators are easily as fast as humans while they have the energy, Lazare says. She estimates a range of 20 feet for adult gators. Rather than attempting to zig-zag away from a gator Lazare recommends a fast, straight line.Which one's are the smart ones?

While Lazare says alligators are particularly unintelligent, Bourgeois has a different perspective. "If you see a big alligator, that's a smart one," he says. "it's survived."

Survival hasn't been simple for alligators. Even in the wild, gators get trained, Bourgeois says. On bayous traveled by swamp tours and fishing boats, gators become accustomed to the boats and their offerings. Loss of the fear associated with humans allows tour goers to observe formerly less common gator behaviors, like bellowing. A gator's bellow emanates from its vibrating torso and sounds somewhat like a lion's roar. Typically, a gator bellows to attract a mate or to claim territory. It also attracts hunters.

American alligators, the species found in Gulf states, were a threatened population at one time. But protection and alligator farming have allowed the natural population to grow. There is a brief alligator hunting season in September. The state issues tags to hunters for a total catch of 30,000 gators.

Alligators are prized for their leathery hydes. But alligator tail meat from just behind the rear legs has become increasingly popular in local restaurants. And the rest of the carcass, particularly the head, jaws and claws are popular souvenirs. Souvenir pieces should have evidence of a legal hunting tag, Lazare says.

How big can an alligator grow?

Alligators can live to 60 or 70 years-old. Full grown females can reach 8 1/2 feet long. Males can reach 14 feet and the longest recorded gator was 19 feet long.

"You can estimate a submerged alligator's size easily," Lazare says, "The length of nostrils to eyes in inches is about the length of the body in feet."

Can you really wrestle with an alligator?

Yes, and both Lazare and Bourgeois do.

When the zoo staff needs to treat an alligator they need to catch it the old fashioned way. Because of their low metabolism it is unsafe to tranquilize alligators. So wrestling it is.

Zookeepers prefer to catch gators in the water by using a pole with a noose at the end, Lazare says. Once the team has the gator somewhat under their control, they bring it to shore and jockey to close its powerful jaws. The gator's jaws are well equipped to crush prey, but are relatively weak in forcing themselves open. From a position astride the gator, the one person will push the top of its head down, making it safe for another zookeeper to grab the closed snout and quickly duct tape it. While closing the jaw it is important to not forget about the powerful tail, she says. The gator will try to twist away.

"They are phenomenally powerful," she says. "You don't realize that until you have one in your grasp thrashing around."

Bourgeois also wrestles with gators in need of care. While it is illegal in Jefferson Parish to handle gators, he sometimes plucks a gator from the water to remove a fishing hook from its mouth.

"I'll boat him if it's safe," he says. "I'll grab him right by the head with two hands at the base. I tire 'em out and they hiss a little." Once the gator tires, he'll grab the tail and immobilize it before removing the hook with needle-nose pliers. It's important not to choke the gator, he says. He'll bring gators up to four feet in length into his boat.

What is the difference between an albino alligator and a leucistic one?

Good question.

Though both are white, albinos lack pigment and therefore have pink eyes. Leucistic alligators actually have all white pigment and blue eyes. Albino creatures are typically weaker than regularly pigmented members of their species. Leucistic creatures, however, are just as strong. With one exception. They are susceptible to sunburn.

To view regular alligators you can head to the bayous or Audubon's Swamp Exhibit. Looking for a white gator in the wild might take a while. Albinos are rare and only 65-70 are known to exist. There have been only two known discoveries of leucistic alligators. In 1987, a clutch, or litter, of 17 leucistic males was discovered in Louisiana. And in 1994, a lone female was discovered. She now resides at the zoo. To see her go to the Reptile Encounter exhibit, where she lives in the shade.